And as strong winds
we will live above them,

neighbor to the eagles,
   neighbor to the snow,
      neighbor to the sun:
thus live the strong winds.

And like a wind I will one day blow among them,
and with my spirit,
take the breath from their spirit:

thus wills my future.

Truly, a strong wind
is Zarathustra to all low places;
and this counsel
counsels he to his enemies,
and to whatever spits and spews:

“Take care not to spit against the wind!”

–Thus spoke Zarathustra.

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Thomas Common, The Rabble, Part 2, no. 28

Today is Wednesday, midweek. It feels as if I’m in the middle of a maze. As if in the middle of a long swim in the ocean. A fog wrapped everything in a damp blanket earlier. Just now the sun brightens the outside, my view through the window here at Starbucks.

Reading a news report of the recent American military campaign against the Yemeni Houthis sparked  recognition that “stupid” is a contagion wide spread.

…after 30 days of a stepped-up campaign against the Yemeni group was another expensive but inconclusive American military engagement in the region. The Houthis shot down several American MQ-9 Reaper drones and continued to fire at naval ships in the Red Sea, including an American aircraft carrier. And the U.S. strikes burned through weapons and munitions at a rate of about $1 billion in the first month alone. It did not help that two $67 million F/A-18 Super Hornets from America’s flagship aircraft carrier tasked with conducting strikes against the Houthis accidentally tumbled off the carrier into the sea.”

– The New York Times, Why Trump Suddently Declared victory Over The Houthi Militia

So much remains outside of my purview. I know nothing about operating a giant aircraft carrier, or about procedures to secure an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter to a pitching deck so that it doesn’t roll off into the sea. Still I am dismayed to read of such mistakes.

How to elevate myself above the fog of confusion, the ill-timed conflicts, waste that is inevitable due to hubris, getting out ‘over one’s skis’, the habit of pretending ‘to know’ when one does not.

Nietzsche/Zarathustra suggests the possibility of a wide-angle view of our condition. Eagles, snow, and sun are symbols of a head-space, a condition of spirit, that is elevated, more attuned to beauty, to meaning, to friendship, toward what is feasible to ‘put my hand to’…

A wind is blowing. Can I imagine that I might participate in that wind?

Take care not to spit against the wind!

Time for a fine tune. Talkin’ About A Revolution by Tracy Chapman. She wrote this at 16…